Knowing that the crowds would be pretty insane for FF day 2, I tried to get there relatively early to catch Purity Ring. Apparently I didn’t calculate on being their early enough — because most of my “earliness” was chewed up waiting for people to leave since the venue was at capacity. But the music gods were on my side, and I managed to get in before Purity Ring got up on stage.

Shrouded in near darkness, singer Megan James and bandmate Corin Roddick took the stage. I hesitate calling Roddick the “percussionist” only because the musical instrument that he plays is a contraption that can only be described as equal parts electronic drum machine, hand bells, Lite-Brite, and Pipeworks.

Frontwoman James is a petite little creature with an innocent face, long brown curly hair, and an apparently affinity for slightly gothy gear (demonstrated by her flowy knee-length dress and pendulum-style metal necklace thingy swinging from her neck). But while she may be small, she has a very strong stage presence.

I’ll admit, the sound was absolutely terrible so close to the stage, but from what I could hear, it sounded pretty darn good. Exhibit A and B below:

After some confusing stage shenanigans, Danny Brown and posse gave what felt like a crazy short set — which involved a Tiger-style sweatshirt (see below).

Then the last act of the evening took the stage — everyone’s favorite tattooed spritely punk, “your boy” Wavves, and his merry band of musical bandits. As expected, the crowd situation got a little crazy, so I cowered in a corner to the the left-side of the stage, staying clear of all the bouncer pushback and impromptu crowd surfing. (Getting hit in the head — like I did at my last Wavves concert — was not something I was aching to repeat.)

The fast and furious set was definitely fun. Afterwards, when Nathan came out from “backstage” (aka – from behind the makeshift stage area), eager young ladies and lads huddled around him as he gladly posed for pictures with his fans.